Saturday 11 August 2012

ExCellent Olympics Pies

ExCel Centre - Creativevents Ltd - Chicken Pie and Steak Pie Reviews


As Boris Johnson famously said at the handover of the Olympic games to London "ping pong is coming home ... where as the French looked at the dining table and saw an opportunity to have dinner, we (the British) looked at a dining table and saw the opportunity to play Wiff Waff (original name of table tennis)." 

Fortunately the British did also see the opportunity to have dinner at the dining table and Wiff Waff was not the only British invention to grace the table. British cuisine is often forgotten or derided internationally. This was why it was nice to see a selection of British food available to an international audience when two of the Pierateers went to see Olympic table tennis.

The Emirates Air Line with the ExCel Centre in the background
The venue was the ExCel Centre in London, a humungous conference centre big enough to have multiple temporary arenas constructed inside. The Pierateers arrived in style taking the new cable car across the river Thames from Greenwich Peninsula to the Royal Docks. Despite only lasting a few minutes the experience was worth it for the views alone.
The Pierateers saw the quarter finals of the Women's Team matches Singapore v. North Korea and South Korea v. Hong Kong. In terms of pie experience Hong Kong clearly has an advantage however this didn't help as Singapore and South Korea both ran out 3-0 winners.

There has been plenty of talk, even on these pages, of Olympic food and pies being expensive. However, upon leaving the Pierateers were delighted to find someone directing people to the pie stall for half price pies. The normal price was £7 for pie, mash and peas, which didn't seem so bad for a meal in a sports venue. However, £3.50 was an absolute bargain (though we do of course consider the price as it would normally be sold, not the special offer price, when rating cheapness). You might think they were selling dried out pies cheap at the end of the day but far from it. Both pies has nearly perfect levels of crispiness of the pastry.

There were multiple pies on offer so the Pierateers chose one Chicken and one Steak. The chicken pie was complemented for it's crisp and delicious pastry and large chunks of meatylicious chicken. The sauce was nice and creamy. This would clearly inspire a generation of pie eaters.

The Steak pie was much the same, the meat was fantastically tender. The pastry perfectly gooey. Despite already having eaten dinner this Pierateer could have eaten another of these pies they were so good.

Given this unique opportunity to showcase British pies it was great that the organisers put the emphais on quality. So often at sports venues, because of the capitive audience the food is mediocre.

These pies are another great performance and surely a gold medal to cap off a wonderful Olympic games for Team GB.

P.S. The company providing these pies was Creativevents, if you are ever organising an Olympic games they come as highly rated caterers.

Chicken Pie (ExCel Centre - Creativevents Ltd)
5.50/7 (RAS)

Steak Pie (ExCel Centre - Creativevents Ltd)
5.50/7 (SJL)
The ExCel Centre Steak Pie

The ExCel Centre Chicken Pie

SJL

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